Memphis Coach's Explanation For NCAA Violation: "My Wife Was Yelling At Me"

Josh Pastner committed a no-no the other night: He tweeted the name of a recruit from the University of Memphis's official men's basketball Twitter account. NCAA rules prohibit coaches from discussing recruits until they sign, and even though the tweet was deleted quickly, the damage had been done. Pastner's offense qualifies as a secondary violation, and the rules require Memphis to report itself to the NCAA's integrity police.

Pastner was trying to do a Twitter search for Lithonia, Ga., center Tony Parker, but he accidentally tweeted Parker's name instead. Pastner just had an assistant coach take another job, and that guy took one of Pastner's staffers with him, so, Pastner told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal, he was a bit overwhelmed. But he also attributed his confusion to this:

"My wife was yelling at me because I was on the phone too loud. I was waking (the couple's infant daughter) up and waking my wife up because I had the TV on. She was complaining that I not only woke my daughter up, but I also woke the baby inside her up because she's pregnant.

"So I was waking everybody up, I was getting yelled at and on top of that I was thinking, 'What's going on with recruiting?' and 'Who am I going to hire?' and I made a mistake."

NCAA rules say penalties for secondary violations "may be more than a 'slap on the wrist'" but that they're "tailored to specific situations." If I were Pastner, I'd be more worried about the sanctions I'd be facing at home.

Photo via AP.

Errant tweet lands Tigers coach Josh Pastner in dog house [Memphis Commercial-Appeal] Memphis coach blames wife for NCAA violation [The Dagger]